Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Monday, June 29, 2009

I stopped by to visit my long time friend and sometimes co-conspirator for all things dancehall Mr. Unite of the famous Tribe of Kings Sound. There are very few people who share all the same obsessions I do. Things like obscure 7 inch reggae records, graffiti non sense, and snapping on lame dudes, and Mr. Hugh Knight does all of those and then some.

The Arab owned liquor stores always have way better product than the usual Anglo owned and operated types. Take Bong Vodka for example. Part bottle, part bong, all vodka.

Early B cover. One of my Top 5!

Let's Chill with Frankie Paul. Or maybe not?

Easy Martin.

The original bad man.

Swap meet style dry cleaning.

One of my favorite people on planet earth. FYI that jersey is "jahthentic" if you were wondering.

Nick McPherson is one of my favorite people on the planet. I've worked with a lot of artists/creative folks if you will, but doing projects with Nick is way better because we don't even really have to talk to each other. He just shows up and the rest is history.

Here's just a few flicks of the fury via Nick's lens.

This is my best friend Carly she is probably more creative than anyone I have ever known.

Portrait of a young man.

2 Paw? Really? You guys are just phoning it in over at the gangster dog sticker company I guess.

This is Tookie. He lives on Nick's couch during the weekend. He isn't trying to be ironic or funny. Dude is dead serious. He is also a keen expert on traveling minor league soccer team gang bangs.

Here are shots from a graffiti book you will NEVER ever get your hands on.

TV crew has been beautifying the streets of San Diego for over 25 years and they made this book to commemorate the occasion. Instead of individual pieces they chose only TV crew hit ups for the entire book.

I have a lot of respect for these dudes just from the fact that these guys were never really embraced by "popular" graffiti culture a.k.a the internet, which makes these flicks even that much more rare to have come across. Look hard because this book will never be published.

Thursday, June 25, 2009

I'm still in San Diego so I haven't bee posting up obviously, but I have some photo posts coming soon from my excursions that will make up for it.

I caught The Abyssinians last night on the coast. Pretty unreal to see those guys. They still sounded amazing even after 30 years of doing their thing. I got footage of that too that I will post up later. Although, I didn't get any footy of the white poetry slam "dreads" getting their vibe on.

Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Can every brand stop trying to pretend that they are all of a sudden some "sub-luxury" line that offer both "clever" graphic tee shirts and "traditional" pieces?

You aren't fooling anyone.

You can't have a t-shirt that has swear words and tits on it and then make an oxford button up and expect me to take you seriously.

Leave the classics to the pros and stick with what you know. Which I'm guessing is impressing 16 year old virgin dudes with inappropriate t shirt graphics that their moms prohibits them from wearing to family gatherings.

If you really want to get into particulars about it you can see a very distinct point in popular fashion branding where the trend to become sub-luxury became the standard and a lot of companies drove up their cost per piece up drastically.

Because of their inability to produce large numbers of these new "sub-luxury" lines they created new lines with a high wholesale price per item. This led many stores that were once only carrying tee shirts, hats, and fleece pieces to cough up more money per order and they got stuck holding the tab with a whole bunch of back stock "street" inspired rubbish that couldn't move no matter how much they discounted it.

If someone wanted to buy a properly constructed item like an oxford button up or a 3 button wool jacket than that niche customer was gonna do it anyway, but not at a store that sells tongue in cheek logo parody tees and gaudy fluorescent hoodies.

It's fine to be either of those types of brands just don't try and insult us with the idea that you're all grown up now and are capable of both.

This whole "why think for yourself when you can just copy someone else" "logo flip" culture is so boring.

I'd rather see lines create something original and stop worrying about keeping up with the Jones'. It's okay to just go for it. Those are the companies that are the most fun to watch. I mean I'm sure if you offered me 6 figures to be a cornball I would sign up in a second too, but it's never to late to start being original.

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

SDTW has never been ruled by one subject. I mean if you asked me what SDTW is about I wouldn't even know what to say. In a way it only serves as an outlet for whatever is going on in my head and made public via the internerd.

I still trip out that people even take the time to check it every day.

That being said: I do take the time to talk about Lenox a.k.a Baby Zeus (my son) when ever possible. Being a dad is the single most important job I've ever been given and I put him first before anything else I do.

There is no real place to turn to on the web for dads especially younger ones. Don't bother proving me wrong.

Pop N Bottles is hoping to change that. My new buddy James has created a forum basically for dads where they can here some "real talk" on subjects ranging from nesting, picking god parents, to the suck that is pre-natal classes.

If you already read SDTW and you have a kid than you have basically just hit the jackpot. On the other side of the coin if you read SDTW and are planning on having a kid DON'T! Most of you guys are scumbags and should not be breeding.